|
Learn
about POWER
INVESTOR, the screening software I recommend in my
books. It costs only $99 but tracks more stocks and funds
than MetaStock ($929) and Window on Wallstreet ($704). |
Articles
A
Review of Israel's Wars
by Jason Kelly
10/06/2001 -
updated 3/28/2002
Israel
was established in 1948 by a United Nations plan that partitioned
the British mandate of Palestine. The Arabs immediately invaded
the fledgling state. Israel won the ensuing war and doubled
its size by taking over the Negev desert. A cease-fire followed,
but all Arab states boycotted Israel while simultaneously
refusing to recognize its existence.
Following
its first war, Israel covered about 8,000 square miles of
land and is that same size today. For comparison, Connecticut
covers 5,000 square miles and Vermont covers 9,600. Israel
is long and straight with Lebanon to the north, Syria and
Jordan to the east, Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean
Sea to the west. Israel's population is roughly 6.5 million
with 650,000 living in Jerusalem, the capital. Eighty-percent
of Israelis are Jewish and 20 percent are Muslim.
In 1955,
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded that Israel
cede its conquered territory and return to its original borders.
In return, Egypt promised to recognize Israel's existence
as a state. The promise, however, was vague. There was no
way Israel could comply. It was being asked to give up tangible
territory -- an act that would be difficult to undo -- in
exchange for a cloudy promise of recognition. There were two
questions on Israel's collective mind: one, how do we know
the recognition will really happen, and, two, why are we being
bargained with in the first place if Egypt does not recognize
our existence? The talks failed.
In October
1956, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan signed a military alliance
and Israel went to war. In an eight-day campaign, Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
In 1967,
Nasser blockaded the port of Elat, which is located at Israel's
tiny southernmost tip and is the country's only access to
the Red Sea. The two nations went to war and, again, Israel
emerged victorious with twice the territory under its possession.
Added to its borders were the Golan Heights and the West Bank
of the Jordan River. The military victory was so sound that
Israel could have overtaken Cairo as well, but decided that
the diplomatic costs would have been too great.
A familiar
pattern emerged. The Arab states requested that Israel retreat
to its prewar borders, but still refused to acknowledge the
country's existence. Israel tried to shore up its territory
and find peace. It referred to UN Resolution 242, which calls
for "acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity
and political independence of every state in the area and
their right to live in peace within secure and recognized
boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
The Arab
states responded with their own position, made clear at the
August 1967 Khartoum Summit Conference: "No peace with Israel,
no negotations with Israel and no recognition of Israel."
In 1973,
Egypt and Syria launched a joint attack against Israel on
Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish holidays. Egyptian troops
crossed the Suez Canal into the Sinai while Syrian soldiers
invaded the Golan Heights. Israel scrambled its forces to
fight back in the Yom Kippur War. The IDF pushed the Egyptians
back into their country and stopped just 20 miles short of
Damascus, capital of Syria.
The usual
negotiations followed. The United States acted as intermediary
between the three parties to form agreements that established
dividing lines between Israel's military and the forces of
Egypt and Syria. The refusal to recognize Israel meant that
the U.S. needed to go between the various parties rather than
discussing terms together under one roof. At the end of the
talks, military leaders signed the agreements. Politicians
refused to meet throughout the process, and signed the final
documents separately from their respective countries. The
end result was that Israel withdrew from some of the territory
it captured during the war.
In 1977,
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke through the wall of diplomatic
separation by visiting Jerusalem. President Carter hosted
the first Camp David summit in 1978 between Sadat and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Israel agreed to withdraw from
the Sinai and both sides agreed to keep the Sinai demilitarized.
Normal relations between the two countries were supposed to
commence, but little has come of it. There is almost no trade
between Egypt and Israel.
There
have been countless skirmishes in and around Israel, the biggest
of them in 1982 when the PLO was expelled from Jordan and
set up a terrorist base in southern Lebanon. From there, it
launched attacks on the villages of Galilee along Israel's
northern border. The IDF invaded Lebanon and removed the majority
of the PLO's organization and military. To this day, Israel
maintains a security zone between Lebanon's southern border
and Israel's northern border.
March 28, 2002 Update On Jerusalem
Mike Jackman of Mill Valley, Calif. wrote a letter to
The Wall Street Journal last week making an important
point about the PLO's claims on Jerusalem.
Mr. Jackman reminded us that Jerusalem has never been of
any significant religious importance to Arabs or Muslims. It
appears in the Jewish bible 669 times and the Christian Bible
154 times. Jerusalem, or its Arab variants, appears as often
in the original Koran as it does in the Buddhists' sacred
text -- which is to say, not once.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab political
entity in recorded history. In fact, the only time the Arab
nations cared about Jerusalem was after they lost the 1967 war
and Jordan lost control over parts of eastern Jerusalem. The
PLO's claims to Jerusalem are motivated not by religious
concerns but by political ambitions.
Return to Articles
|
5–9 reader votes 
10–19 reader votes 
20+ reader votes